2. Fall. I love that
start of school feeling, even though I'm not starting school

3. Taking a hot shower
and then reading Terry Pratchett. (I have never read him until now!But I plunged into a late Discworld
novel and I do think maybe I am missing some things…)

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

Are you 18 yet? Are you REGISTERED TO VOTE? Because seriously, seriously, you should vote. Let your voice be heard. If you are not registered, do it today.There are huge populations of us (women, people of color) who could not vote for huge parts of our nation's history. Let's use our right, now that we have it.

Me, I'm for Obama. But vote no matter how you're thinking. This is an important election coming up.

In publishing news, The Treasure Map of Boys (AKA Roo3) comes out next August. I am going to the NCTE/ALAN conference in November and I hope all you librarians and teachers and fellow writers will come around and see me. (Schedule on my website under appearances). I am writing nothing at the moment. I am dealing with boxes!

What happens when a hazing prank goes terribly wrong
and a young teenage girl goes missing? Megan Kelley Hall is on the GCC with me
and her debut novel, SISTERS OF MISERY, brings us inside a small, seaside town
near Salem, where Maddie Crane is investigating her
eccentric cousin’s disappearance. Her sleuthing ignites the wrath of the
Sisters of Misery – a powerful high school clique, whose activities mirror the
witch hunts of the seventeenth century.

What more could you want? Evil. Cliques. Mystery. Witches. Seems like a perfect end-of-summer read to me.

Anyway, she answered my questions related to The Disreputable History and her answers are interesting. You will learn what NOT to do if you have a crush, and how to scare your sister so bad she'll still be frightened 15 years later!

In the fifth grade, I was
too afraid to talk to a boy I had a crush on. So, I wrote out and entire
conversation of witty comments on the palm of my hand. What I didn’t expect was
that my hands would sweat and that blue ink would end up everywhere: on my
desk, on my clothes on my face. Yup, I made a great impression on my
crush that day.

Also, I don’t know if you
would call this sneaky, but the most disreputable thing I ever did was go on a
date with Steve-O from Jackass. This was way before he got on the show and was
just a sweet (albeit hyper) kid from U Miami. I was a nice girl from Skidmore
visiting some friends. Anyway, the date consisted of him taking me to Subway
for dinner, watching him skateboard with his friends and then listening to a
Jerky Boys CD in his friend’s dorm room. Now my deepest, darkest secret is
finally revealed!

2. Tell me the sneakiest thing that happens in your
new book.

There are too many to tell. Those Sisters of Misery
have lots of tricks up their Lilly Pulitzer sleeves.

3. Are you a prankster? Tell me a story.

My little sister will never let me forget about the
time I hid under her bed when she was younger and as she hopped up into bed, I
reached out and grabbed her foot. She’s 29 and she still can’t go to
sleep without checking under her bed. No exaggeration. Sorry, Jocelyn!

I also
remember freaking my family out when they were watching THE LOST BOYS when it
first came out on video. The part where the vampires jumped out of the
fireplace and into the house that the Corey’s had barricaded themselves into, I
timed it so that I jumped out from behind the Venetian blinds at that exact
moment. I think my dad threw a pillow at me. I don’t know what was
more frightening: the fact that I tried to scare my family half to death or the
fact that my dad was going to protect his family by throwing a pillow.

4. Were you in any clubs or societies in high
school? Did any of those club activities make it into your novels?

The only activity that made it into my novel was the
field hockey team I was on in high school. I also grew up as a member of
a Yacht Club very similar to the Crestwood Yacht club in Sisters of Misery (but
that’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to being in a group like the “Sisters of
Misery.” I hope I never come across a group of girls like that!

5. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why, or why
not?

I was a few credits shy of having a women’s studies
minor in college. I took the courses mainly because I was really
interested in writing by women that weren’t included in the traditional English
Lit classes. There seem to be more “dead male authors” than “dead female
authors” in most high school and college curriculums, which is unfortunate.

6. How does your answer to question 5 show up in your
new book?

The story revolves around three generations of women.
The villains in the book are girls and women and, to some extent, the heroes
are women. Men are very much in the back burner of this story, although
many of the decisions and fights and disagreements are BECAUSE of men.
Isn’t that always the way?

7. The club in my book is called The Loyal Order of
the Basset Hounds. If you were to found a secret society, what would it be
called, and what would its mission be?

The Secret Society of the Sleepers, because we could
all use a good night’s sleep. The world would be a much happier place if we all
got more rest and relaxation.

Yesterday's NY Times Review of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. A quote or two from it, below.

"...it would be a mistake to underestimate this novel, or its protagonist...A homage to girl-power, the novel offers biting social commentary throughout — not the kind that deadens a story but the kind that gives it punch — and a protagonist who is independent and fearless, even contemptuous of others’ expectations.For girls who have experienced a double standard but lacked the precise words to name it, there will surely be many moments of recognition in Frankie’s story. She will challenge girls’ images of themselves, who they are in relation to boys and why."

This choked me up in the best possible way. Okay, it made me sob.
You might want to turn the volume off, as it is just Whitney Houston singing. And you can ignore the sappy message at the end. But I think you'll like the video.

YA and adult novelist Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, author of Haters and many other books (including the adult title Dirty Girls Social Club, which I loved), writes her analysis of Breaking Dawn as containing racist elements. The post contains plot spoilers.

I recommend you read forward in her blog after this post, as she provides additional evidence and responds to critics.

Without having read Breaking Dawn (I read only the first Twilight book), I want to say that I support Valdes-Rodriguez in speaking out about what she sees, defending her viewpoint, and being unafraid of critics who either disagree with her or wish her to be "nice." I agree with her point that defending victims of prejudice and discrimination IS nice, and staying silent when we feel or witness injustice is no kind of path to take.

August 9th, that's this Saturday, TRUE CONFESSIONS OF A HOLLYWOOD STARLET from the novel by Lola Douglas (AKA Lara Zeises) airs on Lifetime TV! At 9 pm! Here are all the details. And here's an interview with JoJo, who's the star.

Lara is super cool -- the author of several novels including Contents Under Pressure and Anyone But You -- and in her secret life as Lola, she lets her gossipy, Star-magazine, glamour side come out, and the books are really, really fun. She's visited this blog lots of times: here's the boyfriend list she wrote for her heroine, Morgan Carter. Her blog is here! And she'll be blogging live, the night the movie airs, giving her responses, thoughts, and the inside scoop. 9pm Eastern.

Here's the scoop on MORE Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet, the second Morgan Carter book, which just came out in paperback:

Just when Morgan Carter was falling in love with
the simple life she'd built in Fort Wayne, Indiana, her true identity as an
infamous Hollywood starlet was exposed. Now Morgan has a choice to make: return
to her glamorous movie star existence--or stick with the wholesome life, and
the new love, she's found in the Midwest.

Now without further ado, here are Lola/Lara's answers to my Disreputable History questions, in which she reveals how she used her sneaky nature to find romantic happiness, and explains why she's a feminist:

In my new book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, the heroine infiltrates an all-male secret society and stages ornate and controversial pranks on the campus of her boarding school.

1. Tell me the sneakiest thing you ever did.

Junior year in high school, I saw this boy in the hallway that looked like Brad Pitt. I fell instantly in smit. So, my best friend Candace and I launched a covert mission to find out everything there was to know about him. We even broke into his file in the E2 staff center. My sleuthing wasn’t for naught; we ended up becoming really close and even dated for a while.

2. Tell me the sneakiest thing that happens in your new book.

My protagonist, Morgan Carter, has to deal with Harlan Darley, a former co-star of hers, spreading rumors that they’re dating. While the press is busy spilling ink about “Marlan,” she’s trying to deal with the fact that this guy stole her virginity in a date-rape situation several years ago. I guess that’s more than sneaky – it’s insidious.

3. Are you a prankster? Tell me a story.

I wish I were more of a prankster! The closest I got was calling my mom one April Fool’s Day when I was in college, fake crying and telling her I was pregnant. (I wasn’t.) She still hasn’t forgiven me.

4. Were you in any clubs or societies in high school? Did any of those club activities make it into your novels?
I was a theater brat, which was very useful in terms of MORE CONFESSIONS. My other activities were of the dorkster variety, like being on the Academic Bowl and Mock Trial teams. I can’t see myself mining that for material anytime soon!

5. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why, or why not?

God, yes. I’m fiercely independent, and have been since I was a teenager. I moved out at 17, put myself through school twice, and bought my own home before I was 30. For a long time, I didn’t know if I wanted to get married, or if I’d find someone I could see myself married to. Then I met my fiancé Joe. One of the things I loved best about him in the beginning was that he shared my belief that we didn’t need someone else to “complete” us – that we were complete already. I see our relationship as the whipped cream on the sundae of my life, not the sundae itself.

6. How does your answer to question 5 show up in your new book?

The ending. I don’t want to give it away, but I get a lot of angry e-mail about what happens to Morgan in the end. But it’s true to the character, and it definitely reflects my beliefs about the role of romantic relationships.

7. The club in my book is called The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. If you were to found a secret society, what would it be called, and what would its mission be?

The Sisterhood of the Golden TiVo, charged with dictating good television tastes to the masses.

So: there was this awesome book of 6 word memoirs called NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING (click here for my earlier post about it, including my on 6 word memoir and a really awesome video) and now there is going to be one for teens by teens, to be published by Harper Collins, which published HOW TO BE BAD. You can submit your own memoir here at SmithTeens. Do it now!

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